DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME 401 I have had to struggle with a very general spirit of disaffection to the Imperial Government, arising out of the removal of the last Imperial regiment while the native war was still raging, though the Colonial Parliament had engaged to pay its entire cost. But I am thankful to say that I believe the worst is now over. The Hau-haus see that the colonists and loyal clans are too strong for them, and the Maoris generally believe that it will be more pleasant and profitable to trade with the English than to fight with them. On the other hand, the concession of the Imperial guarantee of the loan of a million sterling for colonial defences; and, above all, the kindly and sympathetic language of the Secretary of State in his recent communications, are fast causing the revival of the old loyalty of New Zealand. To the Same. Government House, Wellington: September 24, 1870. My dear Lord, I am very grateful for your most kind and encouraging letter of July 17, which reached me by the last mail. I read to the Colonial Ministers those paragraphs in which you express your sympathy with this Colony and your appreciation of the very difficult position in which I am placed, further assuring the colonists that the policy of England is not a mere selfish one, but is believed to be really the best for the interests of the Colony itself'; and that' greatly admire the promptitude and energy, worthy VOL. I. D D 'you of men of English descent, with which the colonists have recently dealt with the native difficulty.' These words had a most happy effect. Mr. Fox,1 the Prime Minister, and others of the leading public men here, say that they have a grateful recollection of the valuable assistance which you gave twenty years ago to the Canterbury Association, and, somewhat later, towards the passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act. The concession of Lord Granville about the guarantee to the loan; his personal courtesy to the New Zealand Commissioners in England; and, above all, the completely altered tone of the despatches from the Colonial Office during the last few months, had caused the tide of feeling here to turn; and now your letter has carried it to the flood. What is the immediate result? Why, that even those who four or five months ago were all agog for separation from England, and annexation to the United States, are now loyal again, and the Ministers asked me to include in the Prorogation Speech a congratulation to the Parliament on the cordial relations re-established with the mother-country! It is national sympathy and not dry logic which keeps a great Empire 1 Now Sir William Fox, K.C.M.G. Sir George Bowen was his guest in November, 1868, at Rangitikei, some thirty miles from Wanganui, but only one mile from a large village of Hau-haus, who 'plainly told Mr. Fox that they would rise and kill him and all the other Pakehas in the district if so ordered by King Tawhiao.' In the following year Sir G. Bowen was again the guest of Sir W. Fox, when the Governor and his Prime Minister rode together from Wanganui to Taranaki through the country recently laid waste by Titokowáru, but where they were loyally received by Hone Pihama, and other chiefs formerly in rebellion. LORD DUFFERIN AND LORD KIMBERLEY 403 together; and, whatever may be the future destiny of the British Colonies, all would allow it to be a grave misfortune to permit the separation to be so precipitated, or matters so to drift,' as to produce in Australasia the bitter and lasting rancour against England so long prevalent in America. In a recent letter (1889) to an English Statesman, Sir G. Bowen wrote as follows: 'I have always retained a deep sense of the steady support which I received from Lord Kimberley on all occasions, and especially during the manifold difficulties which I had to encounter while Governor of New Zealand. Other Governors have expressed a similar feeling. Above all, the greatest of our living Proconsuls, the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, once made to me this striking remark: "While Lord Kimberley was Secretary of State I always felt, in difficult times, like a man fighting with a strong wall at his back."" CHAPTER XIX. FINAL CLOSE OF THE TEN YEARS' WAR-THE GOVERNOR'S RIDE THROUGH THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTH ISLAND FROM WELLINGTON TO AUCKLAND-SUBMISSION OF THE FORMER REBELS-ALBERT VICTOR POMARE-LETTER TO SIR T. M. BIDDULPH-MAORI MEMBERS IN THE COLONIAL PARLIAMENT. THE just and politic measures of the Government and Parliament, and the gallantry of the colonial forces, both English and native, finally brought to a close, towards the end of 1870, the Maori war, which had lasted as long as the war of Troy-for ten years since 1860. As it was remarked at the time: a judicious mixture of firmness and conciliation has at length subdued those formidable foemen :- Quos neque Tydides nec Larissæus Achilles, That is, whom neither Generals Cameron and Chute, with their army of 10,000 regular troops, nor the strong squadron of men-of-war, with its naval brigade on shore, had succeeded in conquering during the war of the last ten years.' Subjoined are reports of the Governor's visits to the lately disturbed districts: 1 Virgil, Æn. II. 197. FINAL CLOSE OF THE TEN YEARS' WAR 405 My Lord, 1o the Earl of Kimberley. Government House, Wellington, New Zealand : I have the honour to report that I proceeded by sea to Wanganui on November 27th ult., and returned thence to Wellington overland on the 5th instant. The immediate cause of this expedition was the invitation of the provincial and municipal authorities, and also of the Maori chiefs of the district, that I should open the iron bridge which has now been completed over the river Wanganui. This is an important public work, being only about one hundred and twenty feet shorter than London Bridge. It was designed by the eminent civil engineer, Mr. George Robert Stephenson; and the materials were chiefly constructed in England, but they were put together and erected on the spot by a colonial con tractor. It will be recollected that Wanganui is one of the earliest European settlements in New Zealand, dating from 1842. Situated near the mouth of the principal river, and in the centre of the most fertile districts in the western portion of the Province of Wellington, it would have made rapid progress had it not been for the almost constant Maori wars and disturbances which have frequently threatened its very existence. However, the town, situated on the right bank of the navigable river Wanganui, and about four miles from |